Memorius
by whohastoknow
Summary: Something extraordinary happens in Charms class that changes Ron's view of a "perfect life." NOT SLASH! Rated for child abuse.


MEMORIUS  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, and chances are that neither do you.  
  
Ron Weasley sat in Charms class, sitting far away from his ex-best-friend, Harry Potter. They had had a row the night before, about their other best friend, Hermione Granger. Harry knew Ron liked Hermione, but when Hermione asked Harry if he'd go to Hogsmeade to get a butterbeer with her, he had accepted! Ron was furious, and he had yelled at Harry.  
  
'Harry Potter,' Ron thought bitterly. 'Boy-Who-Lived, TriWizard champion, defender against all things evil, yada, yada, yada. Why don't they make him the bloody Minister of Magic while he's on it?'  
  
Ron brandished his wand furiously at the stack of pictures in front of him. They were practicing the charm to make the pictures move, but he wasn't very good at it. He was sure Hermione could help him, but he currently wasn't speaking to her, either, although she couldn't figure out why.  
  
"Harry, what did I do?" she cried despairingly, a few tables away. "He won't speak to me, play chess with me, even look at me! What did I say?" Harry looked at her pityingly. He knew Hermione liked Ron, and that he liked her back-in fact, that's what they were planning over butterbeer at Hogsmeade. Unlike Ron, Hermione had the brains to do something about her feelings. She was going to ask Ron on a date. Now he wasn't talking to her, and Harry knew it was killing her.  
  
"You didn't do anything, Mione." Together they looked at their best friend, one hoping he'd sit with them again, the other wanting him to love her. Together they saw Ron wave his long arms like a windmill, and together they watched him vanish.  
  
~*~  
  
Ron found himself in a hall that looked strangely familiar. He wondered briefly if one of the pictures was a Portkey, but quickly decided against it. He was just wondering if Hermione would even notice he was gone when a small figure hurtled out of a door on his left, skidded across the carpet inches from him, and crashed into the wall. "Holy Mother of God!" Ron yelped, jumping back.  
  
A much larger figure came barreling out of the room, and strode across the hall swiftly. He walked toward the small child, who whimpered and shrank back against the wall, before being picked up by the neck. Hand on the child's throat, the man slammed the boy against the wall, causing the kid to gasp.  
  
"I'll teach you to get a B while my precious boy is failing school! I don't see how he could fail and you pass, you were obviously cheating!" "No, please! I." the boy choked out. "SILENCE!" the man roared, and punched the child in the jaw so hard the boy's head careened back into the wall. The nearly unconscious kid was dropped to the floor, while the man stormed back into the room. Ron was just rushing over to help the boy when the man came back, this time with a belt.  
  
Ron watched as the man whipped his child hard with the buckle end of the belt. Finally, after what seemed like an hour of hearing the belt swing through the air and the boy's whimpers (he never screamed, as though he was used to it), the man dropped the belt and picked the boy up by the scruff of the neck and threw him into a cupboard and slammed the door. As soon as the horrendous man left, Ron sprinted to the door of the cupboard and threw the door open. He gasped.  
  
He was staring into the face of an unconscious, seven-year-old Harry Potter.  
  
Forgetting all the insults he had exchanged with the fifteen-year-old version of the boy on the floor in front of him, Ron rushed over to Harry and gently pulled up the back of his shirt, which was easy, since the shirt was at least five sizes too big. He nearly threw up at what he saw.  
  
Harry's back was covered in blood that was flowing freely from gashes on his back. Through the film of red, Ron saw that he had scars similar to the cuts on his back. He inhaled sharply. Harry had been beaten for a long time- from the scars, Ron guessed that he had had to put up with the abuse for his whole life. Then something extraordinary happened.  
  
The room, and Harry was swirling. Suddenly Ron found himself staring at another Harry, an older Harry. He was outside, lying on his stomach, looking a little girl across the street playing with her father. They were playing tag, running around the yard. Occasionally the man would catch the girl, yelling "Gotcha!" as the little girl squealed with laughter.  
  
Ron watched the two running around, remembering how his own father had chased Ron around the yard around the Burrow. He heard a deep sigh next to him, and turned around to see Harry with tears running down his cheeks. 'Harry never knew that,' Ron thought. 'He never got to play with his father, or watch him shave, or watch his mother cook. He never knew how much fun Christmas could be, or stay up all night the night before his birthday.' Suddenly, he saw a foot come down onto Harry's back.  
  
Harry gasped, and Ron knew that he had been hit on his back recently. "Hey, Potter!" a voice taunted. Ron looked up to see an eclipse of the sun that was actually Harry's cousin, Dudley. The voice filled with mock sympathy as Harry fought not to scream, although his face was screwed up in pain. "Oh, sorry. Forgot that Father gave you a 'lesson' in discipline this morning. Completely slipped my mind."  
  
"Which isn't hard, considering its size!" Harry growled back, rolling out from underneath his cousin's foot and standing up. Ron felt like cheering. Dudley continued on as if he hadn't heard what Harry had said.  
  
"As I was saying, Four Eyes, Mum needs you to clean the kitchen and my room, and iron the laundry. It needs to be done by suppertime, too!" Dudley crowed gleefully. "You'll never get all that done in time." Ron watched as the boy laughed while making his way across the yard back to his house. He looked back at his friend and saw the most terrifying expression one could ever see on Harry Potter's face.  
  
Hopelessness.  
  
~*~  
  
Hermione rushed back to the table with an enormous book in hand. She slammed it on the table right in front of Harry, who had been dozing off. It was nearly 3:00 in the morning, and the two of them were in the library, trying to figure out what happened to their best friend.  
  
"I think this will help," she whispered. "What was the incantation he said?" "Memorius," Harry replied, now fully awake. He watched Hermione flip to the back of The Biggest Encyclopedia of Spells You'll Ever See, and listened to Hermione mutter something that sounded suspiciously like, 'Why can't he listen to me and pronounce his damned spells correctly?'  
  
"Here it is!" she cried suddenly. Harry craned to see the words as she read them out loud.  
  
"Memorius is a spell that is used to show the wizard the worst memories of the person he envies. It acts like a Pensieve, making the wizard believe that he/she is in the memory, rather than only viewing it. The spell is cancelled out when the wizard realizes that his envied doesn't have such a perfect life as once thought." She looked at Harry. "Who do you think he's jealous of?"  
  
"Me, probably." Harry laughed bitterly. "He has this notion in his head that I have a perfect life. Well, he's wrong. Far from it. I wish he could see that."  
  
Hermione sat back in her chair and sighed. "Well, now that we know that he's not in any immediate danger, all we can do is wait."  
  
~*~  
  
Ron watched as his friend was insulted, abused, and overworked. He saw Harry cry, whimper, and gasp, even scream. He was struck by how horrible his childhood was, and even found himself wishing that it was him as that lost, scared little boy down there, instead of Harry.  
  
Ron thought, 'Look at this! And I thought his life was good! I had a better childhood when I was miserable then he did at the best of times.' Suddenly, he felt a jerk and saw that everything had dissolved into a mass of swirling color.  
  
He was going back. ~*~ Ron felt his feet hit solid ground and he stumbled and fell-right on top of Hermione, in the Gryffindor common room. "Ron!" she screamed, and threw her arms around him. "Hermione, oxygen's becoming an issue." Ron gasped. He looked up to see where Harry was, but his attention was pulled away again as Hermione cleared her throat.  
  
He looked at her, then looked down and realized that he was still lying on top of her. If getting off of someone was an Olympic spot, right then Ron would have won the gold. Hermione stood up as well and brushed off her robes, then looked at him shyly. "I missed you, Ron."  
  
He looked at her and smiled. "I missed you, too, Mione." Just then, Harry climbed in through the portrait hole. "Ron!" he shouted as soon as he saw him and pulled him into an embrace. Ron was amazed at how this hug could still be emotional after all this boy had gone through. When Harry pulled back, Ron looked him in the eyes and whispered, "Why didn't you ever tell us?"  
  
Harry held his gaze. "Because you would have worried. You would have been outraged, Ron, and Hermione would go into a fit. I never told anybody. I'm already an orphan, I don't need more sympathy."  
  
Hermione interrupted. "Are you planning to tell me what you two are talking about?" she demanded. Harry smiled bitterly. "I'll show you." He took off his robes, turned around, and Ron lifted the back of his shirt for him.  
  
A network of scars was still visible on his back, and although they were faded, Ron knew they would never go away. Hermione gasped and lifted her hands to her mouth. Ron again felt nauseated that anyone could do that to anyone else.  
  
Harry turned back around and smiled sadly. "This isn't the only scar I have," he said, pointing to his forehead. "It doesn't happen anymore. Uncle Vernon stopped about a year before I came to Hogwarts."  
  
"You still should have told us, Harry," Hermione whispered. Harry hung his head. "I'm going to bed. See you in the morning." With that he walked up the stairs to the boy's dormitories and disappeared from view.  
  
Ron looked at Hermione. She smiled at him and said, "He's much too noble for his own good. He'll end up dead because of it one of these days."  
  
Ron smiled back at her. "Nah, he'll cope. He'll kill Voldemort, find himself a wonderful girl, settle down and probably have the most troublesome and heroic kids Hogwarts has ever seen. He will have everything he wants."  
  
He looked straight into Hermione's eyes. "But I know something I want right now." With that he put his hands on the sides of her head, pulled her close, and kissed her.  
  
Much to his surprise, she seemed to even double his emotions. It seemed like she was pouring her soul into the kiss, and right then, Ron knew that she loved him, and that she always will love him, just as he would always love her. It was hard to think about anything but her right then, even Harry. His life was perfect right then.  
  
And from the staircase, Harry looked at them and smiled. 


End file.
